Step 1

Add ingredients to clean bread machine pan in the order listed (unless your machine requires dry ingredients to be at the bottom of the pan, in which case reverse the order).

Step 2

Set machine to Rapid Bake or Express Bake (NOT Quick - see IMPORTANT note below) or whichever cycle will process yeast bread in 2 hours or less. Start the machine.

Step 3

Check bread occasionally to make sure the machine is doing what it's supposed to be doing. Enjoy the smell of freshly baking bread. When machine indicates bread is done, follow its directions for removing the loaf, then cool on wire rack until cool enough to handle, then "hack off a gobbet," butter liberally and enjoy!

Step 4

VARIATIONS:Variation #1For an Italian flavor, use extra virgin olive oil as the fat in this recipe, and add 1 - 2 tsp ground rosemary* with the flour (I mix it in one of the cups of flour before adding it to the pan, but it's probably not necessary to do that). I have had some issues with the bread rising less due to the addition of rosemary, but others have not noticed this, so experiment and see how it works for you.* You can use whole dried rosemary leaves if you don't have ground, but I find that they tend to feel like pine needles in the mouth and people spit them out instead of enjoying their delightful flavor. Using fresh leaves will prevent this from happening, just be sure to increase the measurement by 2 (meaning 3 times the original amount). Fresh herbs take up more space than dried so you need to use a larger measure when going the fresh route. Likewise, when substituting dried herbs instead of fresh, you need to use only 1/3 the amount of dried compared to the fresh. Generally, because 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon, I substitute teaspoons for tablespoons when switching between dried and fresh herbs.

Step 5

Variation #2If you really want to step things up you can add some minced/crushed or dried garlic and/or chopped olives to this bread (maybe 1 - 3 cloves fresh OR 1/4 - 3/4 tsp garlic ~powder~, NOT garlic salt which has more salt than garlic. And around 1/4c - 1/2c chopped olives, drained† [some people put olives in whole and let the machine "chop" them, but I've never done it]), but if you add the olives you may need to slightly reduce the water measurement due to the moisture added by the olives. If you aren't planning to do anything special with this loaf feel free to experiment, but I wouldn't chance it if you're making it to give as a gift or to take to someone else's dinner.† You can also use undrained olives, but since the amount of liquid varies between cans, you should drain the can into your measuring cup, then top off with water. Also, the olive "juice" will be pretty salty, so you may want to add less salt with the dry ingredients.

Step 6

IMPORTANT: Express or Rapid cycles are NOT the same as quick bread cycles. Express or Rapid cycles are only to be used with specially developed yeast bread recipes. They do not even work well with normal yeast bread recipes without altering the recipe.Quick breads are breads that use baking soda and/or baking powder as the leavening agent, not yeast. Quick breads do not use kneading, whereas yeast breads (with a few exceptions) require it.Since the turn of the 21st century, bread machines often have both a Rapid/Express cycle as well as a Quick bread cycle. Therefore, make sure you are using the correct cycle for your recipe!(There are a few yeast bread recipes that augment with baking soda/powder, or vice versa. I have absolutely no experience with these except to know they exist. I don't recommend using these types of recipes in a bread machine unless you are already very familiar with the recipe and believe it compatible with your particular bread machine.)